Samsung is No 1 in the Indian tablet market; Micromax No 2

There is no doubt that India is moving at a brisk pace towards becoming the worldwide leader in the tablet market. A recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that India has shown a rapid progress in terms of tablet sales within a span of one year. It recorded a total shipment of 2.66 million tablets in 2012, which amounted for 901 percent year-on-year growth when compared to 2011.

This growth was made possible as the South Korean smartphone giant Samsung amounted for 15.76 percent for the sales, while the Indian smartphone firm Micromax came a close second as it had a share of 13.33 percent in the sales. Other firms like Apple, HCL and Karbonn mobiles amounted for 9.92 percent, 7.05 percent and 6.17 percent respectively. However, it should be noted that it was the low-cost 7-inch tablets that comprised almost 78 percent of the total sales during this period.

The report stated that this rise in the sales figure was made possible due to the entry of new participants into the market and the competition that they brought along. “The unprecedented growth was made possible by 6-8 local and top international vendors, namely Samsung and Apple, ramping up shipments and aggressively launching new models, especially in the 7-inch device space, to meet the growing consumer demand in the low-cost tablet market in India,” said Manasi Yadav, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices team, IDC India.

The report credited the new marketing policy adopted by the firms, which has resulted in such bright results for the Indian tablet market. Known as the “fly by night” model, the firms, acording to the policy, prefer to flood the market with low-cost tablets in the beginning of the year and try to complete the sales by the second or the third quarter. The report also states that an increase in the Chinese imports along with the local firms result in 70 percent of the Indian market.